The commanding officer's behaviour is not uncommon, but sadly these issues never make the headlines because they affect rural communities and are not newsworthy.

Given my experience, I'm inclined to be uncharitable and say that what Mogale's nephews experienced was heaven compared to our hell.

Where I live, many blacks don't enjoy progressive laws. A once-off incident in Mogale's world is a daily experience around here.

Senior black police officers in the company of white juniors take pride in being "mean and evil". They gladly release minor white offenders into the custody of parents and enjoy keeping black ones in jail with career criminals. This is further compounded by black prosecutors and magistrates with the same attitude.

In Fochville, no white person stays in jail overnight. Petrol attendants are beaten or fired for joining unions and our police constantly defend the perpetrators.

So Mogale, welcome to the real world. For many blacks the new South Africa is only in Joburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban and where the media is a watchdog.